Robley E. George

Robley E. George, Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Societies, was born in Indiana in 1931 and was graduated from Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis. He then studied engineering at San Diego State and Sacramento State Colleges and was graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a B.S. Chem. Engr. in 1954. After serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, he entered Purdue University and was graduated with a M.S. Chem. Engr. in 1957. He completed his formal education at UCLA, specializing in applied mathematics, automatic control theory and nuclear engineering.

Mr. George entered the aerospace industry and participated in the conception, design, analysis, implementation, operation and maintenance of various sophisticated computerized systems. His work through much of this period was classified, though scientific articles did result in the general area of mathematical optimization, specifically nuclear rocket thrust optimization and complex scheduling algorithms.

In 1969, Mr. George left industry to create the Center for the Study of Democratic Societies, a research and educational institution dedicated to the examination and explanation of the properties and possibilities of democratic societies. Mr. George has lectured, presented workshops and short courses as well as given TV and radio interviews on various aspects of present and potential democracy and advanced, democratic socioeconomic systems. He has presented his seminal work on Socioeconomic Democracy at a number of international conferences and is the author of numerous articles published in the U.S. and abroad. He has further developed the concept and discipline of Economic Engineering, first articulated by Keith Roberts. His honors include the Dr. Khurshid Ahmad Khan Memorial Award from the Pakistan Futuristics Institute for his « long-standing services to the Futures Field ».